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While working on this series, USCIS notified that the H-1B cap was met on December 21, 2009 for fiscal year 2010. USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions for new H-1B specialty occupation workers seeking an employment start date in FY 2010 that arrive after Dec. 21, 2009.
USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions that are subject to the cap and were received on Dec. 21, 2009 and will use this process to select petitions needed to meet the cap. USCIS will reject, and return the fee, for all cap-subject petitions not randomly selected.
Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap will not be counted towards the congressionally mandated FY 2010 H-1B cap. Therefore, USCIS will continue to process petitions filed for:
1) Extensions of H-1B’s for the same employer
2) Changes of employer from one H-1B employer to another
3) Petitions amending a material change in employment (such as a change in jobsite location)
4) H-1B employer petitions seeking concurrent H-1B employment; and
5) Petitions filed by exempt employers. Exempt employers are non-profit organizations that are affiliated with institutions of higher education, nonprofit research organizations or governmental research organizations.
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What Nurse Positions Qualify and meet the Requisite Requirements for H-1Bs?
Category 1: The first category of nurses who generally will be approved is the certified advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) category that includes:
· Clinical nurse specialists (CNS’)
· Certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNAs)
· Certified nurse-midwives (CNMs)
· Certified nurse practitioners (Nurse Practitioners fall within this category
Category 2: The second category of nurses who may qualify for the H-1B are those in administrative positions requiring graduate degrees in fields such as nursing or health administration.
Category 3: A final, more subjective group that may receive H-1B approval includes those who have a nursing specialty such as critical care and peri-operative nurses, or who have passed examinations based on clinical experience in school health, occupational health, rehabilitation nursing, emergency room nursing, critical care, operating room, oncology, and pediatrics, ICU, dialysis and cardiology.
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At an American Academy of Nursing news briefing earlier this year on nurse-managed care and health solutions for our ailing healthcare system, former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and others sent a coherent message:
Nurse practitioners (NPs) have developed an infrastructure of health centers and convenient care clinics (such as Minute Clinics) that can help our nation reform a health care delivery system that is currently unable to meet the primary health care needs of its people. Shalala noted,“NPs are going to be key to health care reform and must be at the health care reform tables. Nurses are part of the solution. It’s a solution in plain sight.”
Nurse Practitioners (NPs) have provided health-care services to patients for more than 40 years. The nurse practitioner role had its inception in the mid-1960s at the same time that Medicare was introduced, which dramatically increased the need for primary-care providers. In addition to providing many of the same services less expensively such as primary and some acute care, they are qualified to meet the majority of patients’ health-care needs. They promote a comprehensive approach to health care and emphasize the overall health and wellness of their patients.
NPs offer something else that makes them darlings to health reformers: a focus on patient-centered care and preventive medicine. “We seem to be health care’s best-kept secret,” says Jan Towers, health-policy director for the Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Nurse practitioners may have less medical education than full-fledged doctors, but they have far more training in less measurable skills like bedside manner and counseling.
NPs are registered nurses (RNs) who are prepared, through advanced education and clinical training and are granted either a certificate or a master’s degree that is most common today – this is why they qualify for H-1Bs.
NPs work independently and collaboratively on the health-care team. Some healthcare analysts and experts see nurse practitioners and Physician Assistants (PAs) as the answer to the growing physician shortage, particularly in primary care.
A TIME Magazine article published this year concerning nurse practitioners indicated that they would perform a key role in healthcare reform: “Even without reform, experts on the health-care labor force estimate there is currently a 30% shortage in the ranks of primary-care physicians. Fewer than 10% of the 2008 graduating class of medical students opted for a career in primary care, with the rest choosing more lucrative specialties. That could pose problems if a national health-care bill is enacted.”
After Massachusetts enacted mandates for universal health insurance in 2006, those with new coverage quickly overwhelmed the state’s supply of primary-care doctors, driving up the time patients must wait to get routine appointments. It stands to reason that primary-care doctors could be similarly overwhelmed on a national scale.
Depending on the state in which they practice, nurse practitioners, with advanced training can often treat patients and diagnose ailments as well as prescribe medication. And they can do these things at a lower cost than doctors. Medicare, for example, reimburses nurse practitioners 85% of what is paid to doctors for the same services.
The new HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently said that “to make health reform a reality, we need nurses at the forefront of the effort.” Let us continue to hope that the Obama administration take the abundant opportunities that already exist to make such statements more than just rhetoric.
The Library of Congress’ Thomas database has a hyperlinked version of the new CIR SAP Bill that is better to use if you’re just trying to focus on any one section. The important sections for Healthcare Immigration are Chapter I, Title III.
Sec. 301 – Recaptures past unused visa numbers
Sec. 302 – Exempts LPR dependents from the IV quotas.
Sec. 303 – Slightly increases the per country quotas.
Sec. 320 – Provides IV cap exemptions for certain STEM and shortage occupations
Sec. 321 – Allows those with pending IVs to file Adjustment of Status even if their priority date is not current.
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For your future reference here is a link to the O*NET for nurse positions that would quality for H-1Bs. The O*NET is the Occupation Information Network sponsored by the Department of Labor and was released to replace the Dictionary of Occupational Titles.
If you missed our first 2 articles in this series, you can view them here:
Again, remember — for citizens of Canada and Mexico, the TN classification is available under NAFTA as an alternative to the H-1B visa for RNs and other professions listed on the NAFTA List of Occupations.
Read more:
Time Magazine: “If Healthcare Reform Passes, Nurse Practitioners Could be Key”
NurseZone: Spotlight on Nurse Practitioners
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What can Immigration Solutions do for you?
We can consult with you to determine that the nature of the position and the beneficiary’s background are appropriate for an H-1B or any other nonimmigrant visa classification, and suggest alternatives if the initial proposal is not a viable option. We can advise both the employer and prospective employee regarding documentation requirements and legal issues – and successfully file your case with USCIS. You can contact our office by email – or phone 562 612.3996.
In all good humor, this is absolutely hysterical, followed by a pretty good interview in re why he left CNN, thoughts on health care reform and more.
Dobbs –who recently left CNN citing a change in “tone” since Obama’s election — revealed his most explicit description yet of the discussions with network execs that led to his exit.
“Jon Klein, president of CNN, told me point blank the network was going to move away from the advocacy journalism that I practice into something that he called middle-of-the-road-journalism,” he said.
Stewart shot back: “He really said ‘we’re moving toward middle of the road journalism,’ a flavorless gruel of journalism?”
Have a listen….
A Compliance Review Report was recently released in support of the Administrative Site Visit Verification Program to assist inspectors. The report outlines the type of information USCIS is seeking when site visits are conducted. We note that if an individual requests the presence of an attorney, and an attorney is not immediately available, the site visit is terminated. Remember, a subpena is not required by the FDNS in order to complete an inspection because USCIS governs the fling of immigration petitions, and the government is permitted to take testimony and conduct broad investigations relating to pending petitions.
The inspectors are looking at the overall appearance of the facility, whether or not there was a representative of authority available to speak with them, whether or not the facility appears to be a legitimate business – and more. We link to the Report and to an AILA Practice Pointer Article about FDNS (The Office of Fraud, Detection and National Security).
Please feel free to contact Immigration Solutions with any questions if you require assistance with work site compliance of any kind.
The 2009 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review process, a web-based interactive dialogue designed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to allow your opinions and ideas to inform and strengthen the Department’s relationship with its vast array of partners and stakeholders, has been up and running for a few weeks now. The online portal, however, will stop taking comments this Sunday, September 6.
There are 19 ‘reasons to speak up’ available for perusal on the website. This is your opportunity to tell DHS what you think
BusinessWeek: For more than a decade, the US has faced a shortage of nurses to staff hospitals and nursing homes. While the current recession has encourages some who had left the profession to return, about 100,000 positions remain unfilled. That alot!
Experts say that if more is not done to entice people to enter the field – and to expand the US’ nurse training capacity, that number could triple or quadruple by 2025. President Obama’s goal of expanding health coverage to millions of the uninsured could also face additional hurdles if the supply of nurses can’t meet the demand.
For more on this article, we link here.
Today the Senate Immigration Subcommittee held a hearing addressing electronic employment verification. While today’s hearing acknowledged that employment verification is an important element of comprehensive immigration reform, serious questions remain about how a mandatory employment verification system should be designed. Today’s momentum building must be paired with serious analysis of the many serious issues involved with a large, mandatory employment verification system.
While employment verification is viewed as an immigration enforcement tool, it is a program that affects every person working in the U.S.—including U.S. citizens.
Have you caught the new “Nurse Jackie” TV Show? …saint or sinner?
Due to numerous problems with technology and functionality, the Department of Labor has announced that it will postpone mandatory usage for Labor Condition Applications until July 1st, with the legacy LCA portal remaining active for usage through June 30, 2009 for H-1Bs, E-3 visas and H-1B1’s.
The current portal can be accessed at : http://www.lca.doleta.gov/ and the iCERT portal at: http://icert.doleta.gov
The U.S. healthcare system is pinched by a persistent nursing shortage that threatens the quality of patient care even as tens of thousands of people are turned away from nursing schools, according to experts.
The shortage has drawn the attention of President Barack Obama. During a White House meeting on Thursday to promote his promised healthcare system overhaul, Obama expressed alarm over the notion that the United States might have to import trained foreign nurses because so many U.S. nursing jobs are unfilled.
Democratic U.S. Representative Lois Capps, a former school nurse, said meaningful healthcare overhaul cannot occur without fixing the nursing shortage. “Nurses deliver healthcare,” Capps said in a telephone interview.
For more information on the pinch:
Read this story from Yahoo! News
